Connecting discrete electrical components has become commonplace in modern electronics fabrication. Many known methods for making such electrical connections directly piece together the discrete components. Some electrical connections between components, such as those on a printed circuit board (PCB), have fixed locations on a rigid substrate for making the electrical connections and require specialized tools (“pick-and-place” tools) and high levels of precision to accurately make the proper electrical connections. Other electrical components have developed in which specialized circuit designs allow reconfiguration of electrical components and the electrical connections therebetween on a substrate, such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Still further electrical connections need to be made between electrical components of different natures, specifically between electrical components fabricated on a rigid substrate and those fabricated on a flexible substrate, such as electrical components fabricated by conventional methods like photolithography and those fabricated by direct printing methods.
Making electrical connections between various electrical components can be difficult, especially when some electrical components, such as printed circuitry, often experience low levels of reliability. Some of the low-reliability electrical components require significant amounts of time and resources to find reliable electrical components between which to place the electrical connections and can be difficult to reconfigure. Further, some systems benefit from the inclusion of multiple types of electrical components. For example, some systems benefit from integrating both electrical components printed on a flexible substrate with electrical components fabricated by a more conventional method like photolithography. Such systems are difficult to create because of the difference in heights of the electrical components, the difference in reliability of the electrical components, and the overall challenge in directly connecting different types of electrical components.
Accordingly, there remains a need for improved systems and methods for integrating printed electronic components and other high-performance devices in a single system.